3 Ways Employee Engagement Helps Your Bottom Line

Having a highly engaged workforce means having employees who are passionate, invested, and all-around happy at work. But what does that mean for your business? It’s not like you can assign a number to happiness, right?

Turns out you can — in a sense. We know that employee engagement levels are tied to many drivers of company success, which in turn affects your bottom line. Let’s look at three of the most important ones.

1) Absenteeism

Gallup found that the work units with the highest levels of employee engagement outperformed those with the lowest levels in several different areas, including absenteeism. Highly engaged units had nearly 40% less absenteeism than their lower-performing counterparts. Simply put, engaged employees show up more.

And it’s no surprise. An employee who’s driven to work hard and contribute to the team will be excited to come in every day — but someone who lacks that feeling? Stress might make them succumb to sickness more easily. Disinterest might make them stay home even if they’re healthy.

How much of an employee’s salary does a missed day of work represent? Now try multiplying that across the entire company.

2) Retention

Not only do engaged workers show up more, but they also stick around longer. The same Gallup research also found reduced turnover in companies with high levels of employee engagement:

A reduction of 25% in high-turnover organizations

A reduction of 65% in low-turnover organizations

Replacing those employees who leave won’t come cheap. The Center for American Progress estimates that losing a mid-range employee — those who earn between $30,000 and $50,000 annually — costs 20% of that employee’s salary. That’s somewhere between $6,000 and $10,000. The estimated cost of losing an executive manager? $2.7 million.

This doesn’t even take into account the harder-to-measure losses, like the institutional knowledge employees take with them or the productivity lost as a new hire gets up to speed.

3) Customer Satisfaction

Finally, engagement among your employees can actually have an effect on your customers. This can play out in all areas of your business — from the customer service representatives who take phone calls to the salespeople who woo clients. And don’t forget those employees who work behind the scenes, creating the products and designing the advertisements that attract customers in the first place.

And yes, if the employees in these positions aren’t passionate about their work, customers will feel the effects. Engaged employees will provide better service, make higher-quality products, and generate the innovative energy that keeps companies at the top of their game. According to Demand Metric, organizations that have over 50% employee engagement keep over 80% of their customers.

Measuring Engagement

It’s no magic bullet, but engagement will help your workforce miss fewer days, reduce turnover, and make your customers happier. So why wouldn’t you want to increase it?

One of the best ways to boost engagement is to measure it first. Ask your employees. Let them tell you how they’re feeling and what they need. Employee engagement surveys like TINYpulse help you keep track of engagement on a regular basis, so you’re not surprised by changes that happen month to month (or even day to day). And once you have that information, act on it — let your employees know you’re listening. If you demonstrate that you’re invested in them, they’ll invest themselves in your company.

Helping your employees achieve a successful work-life balance will bring your business multiple benefits in the long run. Share some ways your business is helping to boost employee engagement throughout the organization!